Stoke City boss Mark Hughes has paid tribute to Xherdan Shaqiri after the Swiss scored a brace in Saturday afternoon's 2-0 win over Hull City at the KCOM Stadium.

Shaqiri has largely struggled to impress since arriving at the Britannia in the summer of 2015, but hit both goals in Stoke's impressive victory over the Tigers.

Hughes has claimed that the 25-year-old, who has now scored three Premier League goals this season, "was due" a couple of goals after showing his technique during training sessions.

"I thought we were very controlled. A great goal from Shaq got us off on the right foot, we had great control of the game, never came under great pressure," Hughes told reporters.

"We came out for the second half and we were a bit wary, maybe because we had good opportunities and weren't taking them so we wanted the second quickly. Great technique again for the second, he does that in training and was due one in a match. Apart from late pressure we were very comfortable."

A run of four games unbeaten has seen Stoke move out of the relegation zone into 16th position in the Premier League table.